^ It's not unrealistic. Websites like Best Buy and DeepDiscount offer free shipping with a minimum purchase, but they don't usually hold your items for a week before they ship.

Feel free to order from these vendors instead. I've tried them. Now I do my best to avoid them. Their return processes are awful and extremely inconvenient. And to piggyback on what Baggio said, their idea of "customer service" is not remotely the same as Amazon's.

I order a ton of stuff online. Reliability is critical because ANY company is eventually going to mess up an order. Amazon is the only company that I've found that's happy to fix any problems that arise--even when they didn't cause them and couldn't possibly have prevented them.

I understand the frustrations about occasional slow ship times and lousy pre-order prices. But they're a very small part of the overall picture.

I'll leave you with an anecdote that explains why you can trust Amazon. This past Christmas I placed a last minute order that was guaranteed for 12/24 delivery. Unfortunately one piece of the order was lost by the carrier. Amazon not only refunded my shipping--they ate the cost of my entire order--several different items, all of which arrived safely and on time except that one. And I had a replacement order in my hands quicker than I've gotten email responses from Deepdiscount, Best Buy, and many other online retailers.

I understand we all have different hot buttons. But if reliability is even a piece of the puzzle, you cannot beat Amazon.

Amazon's customer service is top-notch - I'll give you that. But $28 for something that's much cheaper everywhere else just feels...slimy. And, yes, the shipping is too much. It's a legitimate concern. I wouldn't call it bitching.

Amazon's customer service is top-notch - I'll give you that. But $28 for something that's much cheaper everywhere else just feels...slimy. And, yes, the shipping is too much. It's a legitimate concern. I wouldn't call it bitching.

Their prices have gone up. I don't think I realized it because I felt they were still the cheapest for many of the things I buy. I use their subscribe & save to get diapers, coffee beans, and other household items each month. They beat Walmart and BJs on these prices and it's delivered to my door. That works for me.

I hardly buy blurays anymore but here's a recent example of why their customer service is great. I hadn't planned to buy Twin Peaks. I did stream the first episode via Amazon Prime a few months ago. I liked it and planned to continue on with the series. The blu was announced and I considered it, but have really cut back on buying so figured that I could just stream in. This week I decided that I would treat myself to the set and that I would likely enjoy going through the extras. I went to get it at Amazon where I saw it was discounted only 11% to $120. It was late in the week and it would have been nice to start on the set this weekend. The 2-day shipping would have worked. Blowitoutahere 2-day is $20. I message Amazon how disappointed I was on their price. They responded with some nonsense about how they don't control third party pricing and that I can submit an investigation request. I responded even more upset and asked if they were paying attention at all. I was upset with THEIR pricing and that other online stores were selling it for $90. They responded, apologized, and offered me a one time courtesy price adjustment to under $100. I pulled the trigger and paid the $2.99 for overnight shipping. Pretty cool!

This may be my last year of Prime. If their prices are going up, I'm not willing to pay for that luxury anymore even with the great customer service.

And no they don't hold shipping. It's the carrier that takes the longer delivery time. But they will "hold" shipping if one of the items in your total shipment is back ordered.

It's not the carrier. When you order on Amazon using free $35 shipping (if you're using Prime, this isn't an issue), Amazon leaves the order pending for up to a week. You can still cancel it, change payment method or address, etc. Doesn't matter if you have pre-orders or not. In fact, with pre-orders, Amazon usually waits until a few days after the street date to ship it out (again, this is with free super saver, not Prime).

Once it finally ships, then you have the standard carrier times. I think Amazon just does it to make Prime seem like a better deal, but if they're loosing so much money from Prime, I guess I don't understand why they're pushing it so much?

And no they don't hold shipping. It's the carrier that takes the longer delivery time. But they will "hold" shipping if one of the items in your total shipment is back ordered.

It's not the carrier. When you order on Amazon using free $35 shipping (if you're using Prime, this isn't an issue), Amazon leaves the order pending for up to a week. You can still cancel it, change payment method or address, etc. Doesn't matter if you have pre-orders or not. In fact, with pre-orders, Amazon usually waits until a few days after the street date to ship it out (again, this is with free super saver, not Prime).

Once it finally ships, then you have the standard carrier times. I think Amazon just does it to make Prime seem like a better deal, but if they're loosing so much money from Prime, I guess I don't understand why they're pushing it so much?

No preorders, all three items in the order were "In Stock" when the order was placed and the order actually went into "Preparing for Shipment" status on Monday, 07/28/2014.

On more than one occasion, I've had Amazon actually put an order into "Preparing for Shipment" status until day 8 of the 9 day timeframe for free super saver shipping, only to overnight my order at the absolute last minute just to ensure that they met their delivery timeframe.

No preorders, all three items in the order were "In Stock" when the order was placed and the order actually went into "Preparing for Shipment" status on Monday, 07/28/2014.

On more than one occasion, I've had Amazon actually put an order into "Preparing for Shipment" status until day 8 of the 9 day timeframe for free super saver shipping, only to overnight my order at the absolute last minute just to ensure that they met their delivery timeframe.

Well "normal" ship out times of companies range from 24 - 72 hours of placed orders for paid shipping fees. So they were just above the normal for that particular shipment. 4 days, well it's 3 actually considering it was started on Monday morning(not Sunday). So in reality they were right at the normal not above it like I previously stated. I really don't see what the big deal is considering it was free.

See that's why they have a Super Saver shipping option. It's for people that what to save on shipping, and don't want to pay for quicker shipping. If you need it tomorrow than pay a premium for tomorrow.

Or you can just get Prime. And I bet 99%(no one can be completely satisfied) of you're complaints will disappear.

I hardly buy blurays anymore but here's a recent example of why their customer service is great. I hadn't planned to buy Twin Peaks. I did stream the first episode via Amazon Prime a few months ago. I liked it and planned to continue on with the series. The blu was announced and I considered it, but have really cut back on buying so figured that I could just stream in. This week I decided that I would treat myself to the set and that I would likely enjoy going through the extras. I went to get it at Amazon where I saw it was discounted only 11% to $120. It was late in the week and it would have been nice to start on the set this weekend. The 2-day shipping would have worked. Blowitoutahere 2-day is $20. I message Amazon how disappointed I was on their price. They responded with some nonsense about how they don't control third party pricing and that I can submit an investigation request. I responded even more upset and asked if they were paying attention at all. I was upset with THEIR pricing and that other online stores were selling it for $90. They responded, apologized, and offered me a one time courtesy price adjustment to under $100. I pulled the trigger and paid the $2.99 for overnight shipping. Pretty cool!

This may be my last year of Prime. If their prices are going up, I'm not willing to pay for that luxury anymore even with the great customer service.

You probably know this already but I figure I'd share this info to you and anyone else on this forum.

On every product page, all the way to the bottom:

Feedback
If you have a question or problem, visit our Help pages.
Would you like to update product info, give feedback on images, or tell us about a lower price?
If you are a seller for this product and want to change product data, click here (you may have to sign in with your seller id).

Click that link:

Found a lower price? Let us know. Although we can't match every price reported, we'll use your feedback to ensure that our prices remain competitive.
Where did you see a lower price?

Well "normal" ship out times of companies range from 24 - 72 hours of placed orders for paid shipping fees. So they were just above the normal for that particular shipment. 4 days, well it's 3 actually considering it was started on Monday morning(not Sunday). So in reality they were right at the normal not above it like I previously stated. I really don't see what the big deal is considering it was free.

See that's why they have a Super Saver shipping option. It's for people that what to save on shipping, and don't want to pay for quicker shipping. If you need it tomorrow than pay a premium for tomorrow.

Or you can just get Prime. And I bet 99%(no one can be completely satisfied) of you're complaints will disappear.

My post was intended as an example of what CPT HOOK was saying, not as a complaint. Amazon, not the shipping carrier, is the reason free supersaver shipping has a longer delivery timeframe than the paid shipping options. Amazon typically picks the same carriers and shipping services for their free supersaver shipping orders that they would have for 3-5 day shipping orders. The extra 1-4 days tacked on to the shipping time is generally because Amazon places a lower priority on the free supersaver orders than they otherwise would and those orders tend to sit longer.

I don't think I've ever had an order for "In Stock" items from Amazon, with paid shipping selected, where the order took longer than 24 hours to ship. With free supersaver shipping, it's a regular occurrence. Had I selected 3-5 day shipping for the order I placed last Sunday, I have no doubt that it would've shipped on Monday instead of Thursday. Again, this isn't a complaint, Amazon is not exceeding their specified delivery timeframes, but that extra few days is definitely because of Amazon, not the shipping carrier.

I'm so used to ordering "specialty" items that I can't find in stores on Amazon that it would be tough for me to give them up altogether for example, these are just a few of the things that are really hard (or impossible) to find in stores:

- Razorblades. I use a safety razor like it's the 1950's and save a ton of cash over disposables. But I honestly have no idea where to get razorblades for shaving in store.

- Specialty coffee products. I have no idea where to find filters for the Aeropress or Kalita Wave.

- Balega socks. I won't wear another sock and I have never seen them in a store.

- Generic electronics. The stores sell everything brand name and it's impossible to find generic products. You can't even get an HDMI cable in store without overpaying by 800% or more.

You probably know this already but I figure I'd share this info to you and anyone else on this forum.

On every product page, all the way to the bottom:

Feedback
If you have a question or problem, visit our Help pages.
Would you like to update product info, give feedback on images, or tell us about a lower price?
If you are a seller for this product and want to change product data, click here (you may have to sign in with your seller id).

Click that link:

Found a lower price? Let us know. Although we can't match every price reported, we'll use your feedback to ensure that our prices remain competitive.
Where did you see a lower price?

Website (Online)
Store (Offline)

Then click the appropriate box and fill in the url,price,date :

You be surprised but it does help.

Agreed, it often does help. I saw an electronics item a few weeks ago that was about $30 cheaper at Newegg. I submitted the lower price, and it was matched within a few hours on Amazon.

__________________

"The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it."- Neil deGrasse Tyson

I'm so used to ordering "specialty" items that I can't find in stores on Amazon that it would be tough for me to give them up altogether for example, these are just a few of the things that are really hard (or impossible) to find in stores:

- Razorblades. I use a safety razor like it's the 1950's and save a ton of cash over disposables. But I honestly have no idea where to get razorblades for shaving in store.

- Specialty coffee products. I have no idea where to find filters for the Aeropress or Kalita Wave.

- Balega socks. I won't wear another sock and I have never seen them in a store.

- Generic electronics. The stores sell everything brand name and it's impossible to find generic products. You can't even get an HDMI cable in store without overpaying by 800% or more.

- Japanese imported condoms. No seriously, just try them.

Going back to the crap they sell in store would really suck.

I was in the same boat but have managed to find another supplier of healthcare products... slightly more expensive but the delivery compared to Amazon is fantastic - Amazon can jump with their 'free' delivery p.s. it was free delivery from the new place and it was here next day
Amazon kept splitting my order even if I ordered stuff in one order (wtf!). They packaged a shampoo bottle with a CD once and their free delivery company tried to ram it through the letterbox - shampoo scented liner notes anyone?

Just had my first blu-ray order come from diabolikdvd today... shipping was a few dollars more but again, quicker delivery and arrived to me unbent and in pristine condition.